Why Scenario/Versions Important in SAP IBP

[lingaiahvanam]

Many consultants are confused with scenarios and versions. But there is a big difference between scenario and version.

Introduction

Why the scenario/version planning so important in IBP planning....

1. What if you could make changes to your model and save them independently for subsequent analysis and comparison against the base case without affecting the work of others or the base case itself?


2. That’s exactly what scenarios and versions let you do: perform structured and ad hoc changes to the model, saving as desired to evaluate alternatives. How did we wind up with two options? Simple—due to valid business reasons and strong input from early customers.


3. When SAP IBP was first released, only versions were available. Although they address the basic need to perform and save what-if analyses, versions were considered restrictive, because a version had to be initialized from another version before it could be used and it had to have been created in the configuration UI to be available. As a result, versions are most useful for enabling structured tasks within a planning cadence and providing the opportunity for formal approval before promotion to the baseline or another version.


4. However, customer requests and a legitimate need for more flexible what-ifs prompted the inclusion of scenarios. Like versions, scenarios are accessed from the command ribbon. The difference is that a scenario may be created on the fly by any user whose role has appropriate permissions.


5. A scenario is created by selecting Create Scenario instead of Save after running unconstrained planning (or another planning operator) to recalculate the model. As the scenario is created, the active view is also modified to reflect that the scenario is being shown.

Difference between Scenario/Version

Scenario:

Version:

Best Regards,
Lingaiah

[Former Member]

Hi Lingiah,

 

\Will the master and key figure data be saved for a scenrio in the ibp cloud data base, as in the versions and also the below shine through method.

 

Thanks,

Satish

Change Method
Copy
Customers copy data between versions. As a result, a version is based on a copy (or an overlay of multiple copies) and not on a collection of deltas. Changes to the base version (or to another version that you copied from) do not automatically “shine through” in the target version of the copy.
Delta
The system keeps track of all changes to key-figure values as delta records inside the scenario. If, at the same time, changes are made in the base version, these are visible in the scenarios, unless there are conflicting scenario deltas, in which case those take precedence. This change method could be thought of as “shine-through” logic.

[lingaiahvanam]

Thanks for your question. Scenario is created as snapshot Versions are copying data model.

[former_member649284]

Thanks for sharing the information. It's really helpful.

[former_member655868]

Excellent and very Informative.

[former_member657743]

Nice blog about scenario vs version differences.

[former_member350108]

Very nice blog Lingaiah!

[lingaiahvanam]

Thank you Chandramouli!

[lingaiahvanam]

Thank you Prathima!

[lingaiahvanam]

Thank you Varesh!

[lingaiahvanam]

Thank you Vijay!

[victor_hugodebastosleo]

Thank you, lingaiahvanam !

Very usefull!

I have one doubt regarding the Scnearios behaviour.

Once I've created a scenario, if I change some keyfigure value at Baseline, this modification is automatically sent to my new scenario. I noticed that if I change some keyfigure value at the new scenario, it stays fixed.

For me, it would be great if, once created the scenario, it should be fixed. So, I would be able to use baseline to create different scenarios for further comparasion.

Do you know does it happen?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards!

Victor Leao

[former_member117]

Hello,

based on your experiences is there really a need of different versions or is it enough to use scenarios by business?

Based on the comparison the real main difference between scenarios and versions are master data edit-ability.

Thanks, Geri

[lingaiahvanam]

Hi gergely.kocse

Scenarios and Versions are important to business user or groups to take the right decisions to simulate the data to arrive the good plan.

Real time user can simulate data based on his role however it can be extended to group to take the decisions, Scenarios helps to maintain data independent of base version and run the complete end to end cycle to see the effect of current vs new plan.

Functionality wise it has small difference but it provide many benefits to business users based on their needs.

Best Regards,

Lingaiah